Early morning dew
by Shamelessly Radiant
Summary: It wasn't always like this. Once upon a time, like in Brigitta's novels, there was music and there was laughter but then... silence settled over their house as a white sheet settled over their mother's face; and their father was lost to it. The little ones don't remember, but Liesl certainly does.


**A/N:** This was meant to be much more Liesl centric, but my Muse ran away from me. Also, Edelweiss grow a lot higher up, but for the sake of this story, indulge me.

The little ones; Marta, Gretl and to a certain extent Brigitta, are the lucky ones. This is all they have known, and they have made the best of it. Marta and Gretl are still young enough to get attached to every governess that comes, and Frau Smith is there to console them when another leaves again inevitably. Gretl will be the one that stamps her little feet after their latest trick, telling them off, and Marta will comfort her.

That is their routine. But the elder ones? The looks, the little sighs, they remember. And Liesl knows this, because so does she.

 _ **Do (a deer, a female deer)**_

Contrary to what people think, their house wasn't always silent. Once upon a time, like in Brigitta's novels, there was music and their was laughter, and their father showed them affection in a different way.

Their mother was a bright, lovely woman and their parents love was like the love every ancient tale told. Pure, unaltered, true, hearts beating in sync. Their family was whole- A feeling foreign now, and familiar at the same time, like the aching of her heart.

Silence settled over their home as a white sheet settled over their mother's peaceful face, and their father became distant, unfamiliar, quiet. Two months after the funeral, father left and five months later Captain Von Trapp came back. And Liesl wrapped herself in her own arms whenever they weren't occupied with the little ones, curled her tongue until she forgot how to sing and learned to recognize orders and differentiate between whistles.

And that was the start.

 _ **Re (a drop of golden sun)**_

Those days they rarely saw their father, kept busy with marches and homework and music lessons.

The first governess was a strict old woman; Liesl doesn't think she ever saw the woman smile. Eventually the woman decided to retire and they saw their father for the first time in months, as he was forced to return from Vienna to select a new one.

Liesl and Friedrich looked at each other as slow realisation curled in their bellies: _oh._

The second governess lasted less, because she got pregnant. And again their father came back, and just as soon as he found a governess he left again.

 _ **Mi (a name I call myself)**_

Then came the glue in toothpaste, spiders on the bed, frogs, snakes, governesses that lasted less and less and treated them worse and worse. Their father stayed longer and longer, because no one wanted to govern the Von Trapp children. Sometimes, they didn't have to do anything but look a bit devious and the next Fräulein would go screaming for the hills immediately.

 _ **Fa (a long, long way to run)**_

And then came Fräulein Maria.

And she was, admittedly, different. Refused to learn the whistling, showed interest in them, wanted to be Liesl's _friend_.

But she was a governess. She would leave again. It was inevitable.

 _ **So (a needle pulling thread)**_

For a brief moment of time, everything was glorious. There was music, and their was laughter. And their father came back and became a changed man. _A dad_. There was uncle Max, there were games, there was light, hapiness, fun. Fräulein Maria was kind, remembered their names, their father stayed and the whistle and the marching disappeared.

 _ **La (a note to follow so)**_

And then, of course, she left.

Gretl cried and cried and Marta withered. Friedrich and Kurt fought, all the time. Brigitta vanished into her books. Louisa became a wicked girl again.

There was talk of a boarding school. The baroness barely got their names right. She was not cut out to be a mother. In every aspect Liesl found her to be lacking.

Their little adventure ended in failure, sadness and hunger. It had been a warm week- frozen strawberries, as if.

Liesl felt as if she had lost something she didn't even know she had all over again.

 _ **Ti (a drink with jam and bread)**_

But then, she came back. Back, back, she was back, and this filled Liesl with a giddy hapiness she could not name. The music came back, the baroness was gone and they were going to have a mother again.

 _A mom._

 _ **Do (that will bring us back to-)**_

When they leave the car behind, commencing the long, long treck in search of a new home, a country not at war, Liesl pauses for a slight moment, dread curling in her chest

She thinks of the house they left behind, Frau Smith and the old butler. She thinks of Austria and Rolfe. She thinks of her friends, her school, her plans for the future. The book she had forgotten on her nightstand, half read, bookmark lined neatly with the edge.

Nostalgia and fear and the profound sense of something she wants that is and will always be somewhere out of reach fill her very bones, but then her father, _her dad_ touches her cheek with that quirk to his mouth; her mother, _her mom_ brushes her hand with hers and Gretl tugs at her skirt, wanting her big sister.

And Liesl's heart fills itself with joy as she looks at her family, and fills itself with so much love as she looks at the woman who made it possible.

She takes a deep breath, watches the sun glisten on the early morning dew that adorns the Edelweisses and smiles fully; and Maria smiles back.


End file.
